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Riverhead, November 2010

Consider that you are very old and beginning to sink into the abyss of dementia, but you are still at a point that you know that something is happening to you. You have a choice. You can continue along your current path and slowly become more disoriented, perhaps over a few weeks or years. Or, you can take an experimental new drug that will guarantee that you have some weeks with a clear, penetrating mind and renewed physical vigor.

What will you choose? What factors will cause you to make one decision or another? Would you strike a Faustian bargain to attain a renewed clarity of mind?

Such is the dilemma facing Ptolemy Grey in this brilliant new novel by Walter Mosley. It is a deeply personal novel as Ptolemy faces many of the issues of aging - memory loss, dependence, autonomy, remembrance - Mosley has confronted in regard to his mother. These are issues many of the baby boom generation face as they care for their parents while still offering support to their children and grandchildren.

Mosley is particularly strong in capturing the jump starts and dead ends in the nomadic memory of a 91-year old man who is here one moment and away the next. Ptolemy Gray is a man for whom the chronology of his past and present life is gone, and the ability to plan ahead fades slowly away. He knows there is a secret he needs to remember, but in his slow decline he cannot recall what it is.

Having grown up in the Deep South, Ptolemy joined the great diaspora as a young man and settled in Los Angeles where he made a good life among friends and some family.

Shortly before his ninety-second birthday, things begin to fall apart. His grandnephew who provided him with his last link to the outside world is killed in a drive-by shooting. Others in the family try to steal his money. Fortunately, seventeen-year-old Robyn Small, a family acquaintance, comes into his life and proves to be a godsend. She does not want his money; she just wants to belong. She cleans his apartment and begins to give him optimism for the future.

A social worker introduces him to a doctor who is conducting illegal experiments with a highly untested drug. It will restore cognition faculties, but it will result in certain death although no one knows the exact timeframe. It is in expectation that his memory will clear and he will recall the secret that Ptolemy agrees to take the drug. He knows somehow that with clarity will come knowledge of who killed his grandnephew, that he will be able to provide for his family, and that Robyn will be safe.

Walter Mosley has written the most powerful, provocative novel of the year. It is a good story with twists and turns and building tension. It has memorable characters, especially Ptolemy and Robyn, who will stick in your memory. It is a highly literate mystery novel, and it addresses the crucial issue of aging and its myriad effects on society in general and each of us individually. Ptolemy Grey will cause you to reflect on its message long after it has returned to its place on the shelf.



Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.